No, it’s not blowing over

Brad Smith, Microsoft ‘s general counsel, tried to illustrate the problem Thursday at a technology conference by recounting a meeting a month ago with corporate-technology executives in Berlin. One of them came clutching a copy of the recent U.S. federal magistrate ruling forcing Microsoft to turn over a user’s emails and other digital information stored in a company data center in Ireland.

“It is not blowing over,” Smith said. “It is getting worse, not better.”